LA Metro Gold Line Extension designed/built to operate safely

An independent panel of
rail transit safety experts has concluded that the new Metro Gold Line to East
Los Angeles has been designed and built to operate safely. The report comes as
Metro continues testing trains and training operators for service, which is
expected to begin this fall on an extension of the Metro Gold Line, which now
connects downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena.

The six-mile extension
will feature eight new stations (two underground) between Union Station in
downtown Los Angeles and Atlantic/Pomona boulevards in East Los Angeles via
Little Tokyo, the Arts District and Boyle Heights. A third of the Eastside
alignment is underground.

New Metro CEO Art Leahy
asked three renowned rail safety and operations experts from across the
country, who have a combined total of more than 100 years of experience, to do
a critical review of the Eastside Extension and advise if its safety features
were sufficient. In late June and early July of this year the panel spent a
week studying every aspect of the new Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension
including rides on test trains.

The panel included
Cameron Beach, a member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Board of Directors, who also spent two decades with the Sacramento Regional
Transit District and Rail Technology, Inc.; Peter Tereschuck, a senior
operations engineer and transportation manager who oversaw the startup of the
San Diego Trolley and worked on rail lines in South New Jersey, Philadelphia
and New York as well as Miami, Fla.; and Harry Saporta, a safety consultant who
served as the director of the Federal Transit Administration's Office of Safety
and Security and who also was a former manager of System Safety Programs for
the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District in Portland, Ore., and a
senior engineering manager specializing in safety and security for Parsons
Brinckerhoff.

"The operational
characteristics of the Eastside Extension are not unlike many other light rail
operating environments in the United States," according to the panel report.
"It has been designed to be a safe, efficient and effective extension of the
Pasadena Gold Line. The at-grade crossings have incorporated design features to
promote the safe movement of trains and motor vehicles through these
intersections."

The rail safety panel
also noted the street running segment of the Metro Gold Line extension, where
trains operate in the middle of the street at no more than 35 miles-per-hour
within the posted speed limit for vehicular traffic, is typical of many light
rail lines in North America that operate without any crossing gates.

Safety experts also
praised Metro's safety outreach program as "outstanding and a model for the
rail transit industry."

However, the panel
suggested additional safety enhancements such as installing fencing in areas
where frequent jaywalking is observed, installing raised buttons or rumble strips
and reflective pavement markers so motor vehicles don't accidentally intrude on
the trainway, reduce warning sign clutter and working closely with law
enforcement to strongly enforce the "Stop Here" and "Keep Clear" requirements.

Metro is heeding the panel's
recommendations. It also has deployed safety ambassadors to help educate the
public and is putting in traffic enforcement cameras at 14 intersections. For
weeks Sheriff's and LAPD officers also have been patrolling the light rail
alignment.

For months Metro has been
conducting a series of tests of multiple safety and communications systems and
has now started pre-revenue operations that will familiarize operators with the
station stops and procedures. A date for the start of revenue operations will
soon be announced.